Notice

Colin Mills, compiler of the Hortus Camdenensis, died in late November 2012 after a short illness. As he always considered the Hortus his legacy, it is his family's intention to keep the site running in perpetuity. It will not, however, be updated in the near future.

Beaufortia species unidentified

Beaufortia is a genus of 19 species of evergreen shrubs from warm-temperate areas of Western Australia, with bottle-brush-like flowers.  [RHSE].

Horticultural & Botanical History

Beaufortia dampieri A.Cunn.: ‘A rare plant, and one of the few shrubs that are to be found upon the barren, loose, sandy downs of Dirk Hartog’s Island, off Shark’s Bay, on the west coast of Australia, where its seeds were gathered in 1822, during the surveying voyage of Capt. P. P. King in H. M. Sloop Bathurst, and from which the living plants which have repeatedly flowered in the Royal Gardens at Kew were raised.’  It has pink flowers.  [BM t.3272/1833].  William Macarthur was a close friend of King’s and this plant is a possibility, although the fact that this name was published in 1833 in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine makes it unlikely.  This plant is used as an illustration here.

History at Camden Park

Listed in all published catalogues [T.140/1843].  It is possible that Macarthur received his plant from contacts in Western Australia or that it was collected on the south or south west coast of Australia by a ship on route to Hobart via the Cape of Good Hope.  Australian plants received by Macarthur from the East India ship Sovereign in 1831 were probably collected in this way.  See also ‘Calothamnus species unidentified’ which was probably received by Macarthur at the same time from the same source.

Notes

Published Jan 17, 2010 - 03:08 PM | Last updated Mar 29, 2010 - 03:41 PM

Figured is a shrub with small, dense foliage and feathery pink flowers.  Curtis's Botanical Magazine t.3272, 1833.

Beaufortia dampieri A.Cunn. | BM t.3272/1833 | BHL.  This plant is given as an example of the genus only.

Family Myrtaceae
Category
Region of origin

Western Australia

Synonyms
Common Name
Name in the Camden Park Record

Beaufortia sp. nova

Confidence level low